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The Sandman Companion (Amazon.com)

The Sandman Companion (Amazon.co.uk)

The Sandman Companion (Powell's Books - new or secondhand)

Hy Bender

The Sandman Companion

The Sandman comics, available in ten collections, have much more going on in them than appears at first reading. This book trawls through the stories to uncover some of the series' subtleties.

In The Sandman Companion Neil Gaiman and the series' illustrators are interviewed about every Sandman story. Not only does this book help us appreciate the series' use of symbolism, history and myth but it shows us the many idiosyncratic artistic and literary benefits of comics as a medium. There should be more books like this.

The interviews take all the right paths: I was hoping that the Season of Mists interview would lead to a discussion about The Sandman and religion - and it does. That is not to say that there aren't omissions. Gaiman found that the Library of Dreams had appeared in the work of his favourite early 20th Century fantasy author, James Branch Cabell - but that he had forgotten. There are about eight or nine other elements of The Sandman that are prefigured in Cabell's work, so it's a pity that this is not discussed. Of course, Gaiman could easily have forgotten all about them.

My only other quibble is a very minor one. I always thought it was kind of cool that the Sandman was seldom, if ever, referred to by that moniker in the series but in this book he's called "the Sandman" throughout and "Dream", less often, exactly the reverse of the series. Seems wrong somehow!

Anyway, this book is a must for anyone who wants to get full enjoyment out of The Sandman by giving it a close reading.

- Barry Kavanagh